BHUBANESWAR: After BJD and Congress, BJP's decision to rope in Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh to campaign for party candidates during the panchayat polls in Odisha has come in for sharp criticism from senior party leader Bijay Mohapatra.
Chief ministers should not campaign in panchayat poll, that too from the neighbouring states, Mohapatra said reacting to the BJP's decision to include the names of chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand Raman Singh and Raghubar Das respectively in the list of star campaigners for the party. The senior leader's reaction came a day after BJD, Congress and Samajwadi Party announced that Raman Singh will be opposed if he addressed public meetings during the poll campainging.
"The chief ministers should not be involved in campaigning for the panchayat polls. Nobody will stop him (Raman Singh) from delivering speeches, but in this poll the chief ministers should not come into picture," he said. The BJP has included Singh and Das in the list of party's star campaigners to counter Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Sources in the BJD said the chief minister will launch his campaign after the scrutiny of the candidates are over.
The senior BJP leader also advised political parties to refrain from politics of vendetta. He said the CBI and vigilance should stop process of investigation during the poll process. Mohapatra was referring to CBI raids in the residence of BJD leaders and vigilance raid on the gas agency of union minister Dharmendra Pradhan's brother at Handidhua in Angul district.